Horrific Events Leave Friends, Relatives Of Suspect Stunned

Relatives and friends knew them as two kind men devoted to each other in a long-term, monogamous relationship.

From the privacy of their home, however, Kelly Ray Jones cruised online chatrooms as FTLBAREBACK, looking for sex partners and child pornography, and Kenneth Wilk presented himself as COPWARNING, alerting chatters to police sting operations, investigators said in court records.

The private lives of Wilk and Jones began unraveling shortly after they arrived in South Florida four years ago. Jones' repeated arrests, a 29-month prison sentence and public exposure of his sexual interests threatened the couple's emotional and financial stability, according to court records.

The confrontations with law enforcement officials escalated until they culminated Thursday in the shooting death of Broward Sheriff's Detective Todd Fatta and the wounding of Sgt. Angelino Cedeno. Officials say Wilk ambushed the officers in his Fort Lauderdale home as they led a task force of local, state and federal agents to arrest him on child-pornography charges.

Authorities had arrested Jones on similar charges in July, a month after his release from federal prison.

Between February and June 2001, Jones was arrested four times as the case transferred from state to federal court, or new charges were added. Detective Neil Spector of the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Department, and members of the Law Enforcement Against Child Harm, a multi-agency task force known as LEACH, were always involved.

"This is beyond prosecution," Wilk testified at a federal court hearing in July 2001. "This is persecution. This is the fourth time Mr. Jones has been arrested by Mr. Spector. I spend probably 40 to 60 hours a week on a computer challenging Detective Spector. It is my life's work to challenge the LEACH task force and to expose their behavior."

Friends, sister rally

Friends couldn't believe the charges, not even when Jones pleaded guilty. In March 2002, eight people wrote the judge asking for leniency and questioning the motives of the police who conducted the investigation.

FOR THE RECORD - CORRECTION PUBLISHED TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2004.An article on Page 1A of Sunday's edition regarding the shooting death od a Broward County sheriff's detective gave an incorrect title for Assistant Attorney Katleen Rice. The article also misspelled the name of a pschologist involved in the case, Merry Haber.

"I have known Kelly Jones for over eight years and I have always found him to be a gentle, kind and thoughtful person," wrote Wilk's sister, Kim Wilk. "While he lived in Houston he was an upstanding person and was never in any type of trouble ... the circumstances of his wrongdoing are suspect."

"The Kelly I know isn't capable of the things he is accused of or even the things he has pled guilty to," wrote Laura Blair of Missouri, whose friendship with Jones dates to 1980.

"The charges against him are unfathomable to those who know him," wrote Kelli Vance, of Austin, Texas, another long-time friend.

Attempts to reach Blair and Kim Wilk were unsuccessful.

Prosecutors, however, wanted the judge to go beyond the sentencing guidelines, since he was suffering from AIDS, according to a psychological report filed in state court.

"The defendant's intent was clear: to engage in sexual intercourse. The fact that the defendant did not, however, at any time disclose that he is suffering from a life-threatening and communicable disease demonstrates a callousness and reckless disregard for human life," U.S. Attorney Kathleen Rice wrote the court.

The letters written on his behalf seem to have worked. Although Jones faced up to 50 years in prison, he was sentenced to 29 months.

Jones met Kenneth Wilk in Houston in 1994, about the time Wilk was serving a brief term as president of the local Log Cabin Club, a group of gay Republicans. At the time, both were HIV-positive. Today, both suffer from AIDS, according to a psychological profile conducted by Merry Huber.

The two quickly knew they would be "life partners," Haber wrote.

Vance, who met Jones in college in 1984 and visited him a few times when he and Wilk were living in Houston, said she thought Wilk had brought stability to Jones' life.

"They were very on the straight and narrow, go to work, come home, that sort of thing," Vance said. "I was happy; I thought Kelly had finally met someone who would be good for him."

They moved from Houston to Miami Beach around 1997, and then to Chicago about a year later.

Their relationship was strong, but Jones' health was declining. Problems in the relationship emerged in 2000 while they were moving into a single-family house in the 1900 block of Northeast 57th Street in Fort Lauderdale.

Jones' mother was involved in an accident that would keep her from visiting Jones and Wilk that Christmas. Depression set in for Jones, and, according to the report, "they were arguing and sleeping in separate rooms, sometimes not talking to each other for days."

The following month, Jones bought a computer and began searching the Internet. Jones told Haber "he was unsure of his relationship with [Wilk] at the time and felt unstable in general."